Fandom Promo Post
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historiumOur latest challenge is to pick up a fandom, and while you can already find several fandoms via our fandom promo tag, more is good, yes?
So, here's an extra place to share some of the historical fandoms we love! Our definition is fairly wide and includes things that may contain supernatural elements, contemporary material that is now historical, RPF and fiction, and our cut-off date is fifty years ago (1970). Fandoms may be as obscure (or not) as you wish. (Please - no bashing of anyone or their fandoms in this post.)
Here's a template to use, with c+p text below in the box:
Fandom:
Historical Period:
Content Notes/Warnings:
What it is/what’s so great about it:
Where to find it:
Share your fandoms!
So, here's an extra place to share some of the historical fandoms we love! Our definition is fairly wide and includes things that may contain supernatural elements, contemporary material that is now historical, RPF and fiction, and our cut-off date is fifty years ago (1970). Fandoms may be as obscure (or not) as you wish. (Please - no bashing of anyone or their fandoms in this post.)
Here's a template to use, with c+p text below in the box:
Fandom:
Historical Period:
Content Notes/Warnings:
What it is/what’s so great about it:
Where to find it:
Share your fandoms!
no subject
Date: 2020-03-09 09:27 pm (UTC)Historical Period: Regency
Content Notes/Warnings: Fairly casual refs to death/murder/suicide (a la yr typical detective novel, basically)
What it is/what’s so great about it: Do you expect, when picking up another slight, light-hearted Regency series to be confronted with a possessed/sentient beautiful but evil stately home? I certainly didn't and now I need to know more.
Imagine Pemberley, but so evil it drives everyone into desperate deeds to possess it, up to and including murder. And once they do, it then tends to drive them to throw themselves (or other people) off the bannister and haunt the place.
How did it get that way? Is it just so in love with its own perfect proportions and beautiful landscaping? Built on a cursed site? What? Did it torment previous generations? What happens next? (The ending suggests that it'll just start the game again with the next generation). Does it survive into the post-stately home era and become a goverment department with the highest casualty rate and inter-office rivalry in the country? Or burn down and curse in turn a modern estate? I mean, these are questions I need to have answered. Does it get investigated over the years by ghost-hunters/detectives/eccentric government outfits?
The series is fairly fun, too - if you've read an MC Beaton Regency, you know the kind of thing. But with added blink-inducing crack of an EVIL house. Which is, as you can tell, exactly the kind of crack I am here for.
Where to find it: It's a very slight series - six books, but you could get through them in not much more than a day, and you'd probably only have to read the last couple to get the gist. It seems to have been relatively recently reprinted and available in libraries both here (in the UK) and in the US.
On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/series/55378-the-daughters-of-mannerling
Dracula (TV 1968)
Date: 2020-03-10 10:04 am (UTC)Historical Period: 1890s
Content Notes/Warnings: None, save general vampire tropes and shaky old TV.
What it is/what’s so great about it: Feature length b&w adapation (originally part of ITV's Mystery and Imagination series), starring Denholm Elliott, Corin Redgrave, James Maxwell, Joan Hickson, Bernard Archard, Suzanne Neve & Susan George. It's shaky old b&w telly, yes, but it's also an interesting adaptation, and it's a lot of fun as a launching place for Dracula fic.
In this version, all the action is confined to Whitby, Arthur and Quincy have been dispensed with, while Jonathan (Corin Redgrave) is conflated with Renfield and is 100% overwhelmed by Dracula (sadly Dracula prefers girls if he can get them, poor Jonathan) and the sole strapping Victorian male gent left is Dr Seward... who spends the whole thing fainting under the strain. He's Van Helsing's miner's canary. Van Helsing (Bernard Archard) clearly has history on this supernatural stuff as well as epic fake hair, because Dracula has heard of him. (He's long wished to cross swords with him. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Aha. Ahahaha.)
Meanwhile, Lucy (Susan George) is busy seducing Mina (Suzanne Neve) <3 <3 <3 when she's not making John faint again, and Denholm Elliott's Dracula likes to turn up to dinner parties and troll people. Many flowers get killed; this distresses Dr Seward. It all winds up with Dracula ostensibly defeated, but Mina probably still vampirised and eyeing up Dr Seward's neck, and Jonathan shaken and silent. And then...? Who knows, dear Yuletider, that's the thing.
It's also a great one to be in if you're a minor character - as far as we know, Mr Swales, the three Brides of Dracula, and Mrs Weston (Joan Hickson aka Miss Marple, oh yes) are all still alive when the credits roll.
Basically, it's only 1hr 20 mins, available, femslashy, and has all the questions and loose ends of the kind that mean fic is needed. Just because there is also some terrible fake moustaches is no reason to run away.
Where to find it: YouTube & Links -
1. The whole thing is up here at YouTube
2. Dracula (1968) (Wiki entry)
3. Reviews:
http://www.gothic.stir.ac.uk/blog/Dracula-1968/
http://cult-tv-lounge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/mystery-and-imagination-dracula-1968.html
Plus: Many many gifs at my tumblr.
Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung
Date: 2020-03-26 05:11 pm (UTC)Historical Period: 1800s Korea
Content Notes/Warnings: There's some death and violence, but not a lot. There are also a couple episodes focused on a plague.
What it is/what’s so great about it:
The royal palace is hiring female historians for the first time in basically forever. Goo Hae-ryung, an enterprising 28-year-old woman, applies for the job and gets accepted as an intern along with three other women. Lots of palace intrigue and shenanigans ensue, and also Hae-ryung meets and falls in love with the young Prince Dowon.
Some things that are great about it:
-The female historians are all delightful, and the male historians are too once they get past some initial somewhat sexist skepticism about the newbies. They get up to some kind of goofy antics at times, but they're also very serious about their duties, sometimes even taking a stand against the king himself.
-Prince Dowon is secretly a romance novelist, and while this isn't a huge part of the plot, it IS a rather large part of his personality, as he is quite romantic and a little idealist and naive. He's also spent all his life confined to a lonely corner of the castle and pines for the outside world. Meanwhile, Hae-ryung is very down to earth and hates romance novels. A source of much tension!
-The set and costuming are generally gorgeous.
Where to find it: Netflix
Re: Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung
Date: 2020-03-31 08:18 pm (UTC)The flight of the heron promo!
Date: 2020-04-01 04:27 pm (UTC)Historical Period: 18th century.
Content Notes/Warnings: I can't think of anything, except for the kind of typical battle/wartime violence you might find in similar books. And some animal death.
What it is/what’s so great about it: The first in a series of three called "The Jacobite trilogy", this book is an adventure story set in 1745, in Scotland, during the Jacobite rebellion. Its two main characters are a Jacobite supporter and an officer in the English army. At first they seem like complete opposites, but as the story moves forward, they come to respect each other and become friends.
This is a book about honour, loyalty and sacrifice for a cause or a belief. But mostly, it's about fate and unexpected, life-changing friendship. Also, it's truly interesting from a historical point of view, and for anyone interested in nature and landscapes, as it includes beautiful, breathtaking descriptions of the Scottish Highlands.
Where to find it: Libraries, online shops, and at Faded Pages ebook archive (in the public domain, under Canadian copyright laws).
Re: The flight of the heron promo!
Date: 2020-04-01 04:40 pm (UTC)Re: The flight of the heron promo!
Date: 2020-04-01 04:41 pm (UTC)Re: The flight of the heron promo!
Date: 2020-04-01 08:01 pm (UTC)I would like to second this recommendation very strongly, and only want to add that, more than honour, fate or anything else, this book is about absolute oodles of hurt/comfort.
"El Ministerio del Tiempo" promo post!
Date: 2020-06-28 05:37 pm (UTC)Historical Period: All over the past timeline of Spanish history!
Content Notes/Warnings: Some violence, guns, blood, but nothing overly explicit.
What it is/what’s so great about it: "El Ministerio del Tiempo" is a Spanish series about time travelling to the past, in order to protect the present and the future. "The ministry" is a secret organisation set in the present day, that protects and repairs the timeline of Spain's history from intruders who might want to modify it for their own agenda. The time travelling is done via "time doors", and the Ministry's agents are recruited from different time periods to work together. The series follows the team led by Amelia (a female university student from the 19th century), who is joined by Alonso (a soldier from the 16th century Army of Flanders), Julián (a paramedic from the 21st century) and later Pacino (a police officer from the 1980s). Their adventures take them all over the history of Spain, meeting historical figures like Lope de Vega, Picasso, Goya, García Lorca, and several members of the Spanish royalty! They are aided by several other "time civil servants", like Velázquez (yes-that Velázquez!), who draws the identikits for the Ministry!
Where to find it: The series has four seasons, all available at the official site (with Spanish subtitles). It used to be on Netflix, and I believe it has now moved to HBO.